On June 16, 2015, Lego Juris A/S obtained two favorable decisions from the General Court of the European Union which will afford protection to famous Lego “minifigure” as a three-dimensional (3D) trademark; a protection that has been denied to its even more famous standard building brick.
For many years the Danish company, founded by Mr. Ole Kirk Christiansen, relied on patents that were filed at the end of the 1950s. … More
Last year, the District Court in Home Legend v. Mannington Mills gave three reasons for its holding that the designs on faux-hardwood flooring material, which are intended to look like real maple floors, were not subject to copyright protection. On April 29, 2015, however, a unanimous Eleventh Circuit decision held that these reasons were against the grain, and shipped the matter back to District Court for pulping.… More
Once a piece of clothing has been styled, cut and shaped according to a designer’s vision, it is a form of expression arguably no less worthy of copyright protection than say, a photograph, painting, or poem. However, the “useful article” doctrine generally denies copyright protection for aspects of clothing design that are considered inherently functional or “utilitarian.” So, for example, the two-dimensional pattern on a dress may be copyrightable,… More